


Bear to Feel Forgotten

by Corycides



Series: 100 Fics in 100 Days [28]
Category: Revolution (TV)
Genre: 100 Fics in 100 Days, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-06
Updated: 2013-02-06
Packaged: 2017-11-28 11:04:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 718
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/673684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Corycides/pseuds/Corycides
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After escaping Philadelphia, Charlie tries to patch her her idea of families back together</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bear to Feel Forgotten

The rebels smuggled them out of Philadelphia and stashed them in an isolated safe-house until they could decide what to do with them. It was almost like being normal again. They had bed linens and hot meals and clean clothes. Aaron lectured them at night, hands moving animatedly, and Rachel made the home-made ice-cream Charlie remembered from when she was little.

It didn't taste as good as it used to. Nothing was as good as it used to be. They didn't fit together any more – none of them did.

'It's like a Venn diagram,' Aaron said, sitting with her in the garden as she weeded the herb beds. He was the only one who hadn't changed much, still as baffling and weird as ever. He scratched his beard with stubby fingers and sucked on his flask (Charlie kept count, but didn't know what to say). 'Everyone just pushing at each other for their slice of the circle. Rachel wants you to love her, you want Danny to let you protect him, Danny wants Miles to teach him to fight, Miles-'

Charlie sat back on her heels and wiped muddy hands on her jeans. 'Miles wishes he'd made a different decision, back in Philly.'

'No,' Aaron said, leaning over to squeeze her shoulder. 'He thinks the sun rises and set on you, Charlie. He just...he wishes he could have made a different decision.'

There were crescents of dirt and green pulp under Charlie's nails. She picked at them industriously, until the beds were sore and red.

'I don't know what to do,' she said. 'I thought once we got Danny back...'

She trailed off, because she really hadn't thought about 'after'. It had been hard enough to believe in finding Danny, she'd not had any make-believe left over for the future. Not that she'd ever had enough make-believe to imagine her mom alive, her uncle the AWOL head of the militia and her family responsible for turning off the power.

'I don't know what to do,' she said.

'You don't have to do anything,' Aaron said, scrambling to his feet. 'It'll sort itself out, Charlie. We all just need some time. You ok? I need to go talk to Rachel.'

No.

Except he was already leaving, so Charlie just said 'I'm fine' to his back and went back to jabbing at the dirt. There had been a time she'd thought about the future. She'd sit in Aaron's classroom and stare at his faded map of the country – before the militia came through and took it away – while she dreamt about following her postcards across the country.

Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, Washington...and somewhere along the way she'd find her mom. The shiny-slick material of the postcards under her fingers had been her made-up map, something her mom had someone sent back for her. Stupid, naïve kid stuff – that she'd been too old for even back then.

Except...here she was. It had come true. Only it was like the make-shift normal they were playing at here. Not all the way there. In Charlie's daydreams her Mom always told why she'd not come back. Whatever reason Charlie came up – pirates or amnesia or getting lost – it made sense. It didn't make up for losing her mom, but it explained it.

Anger wrenched at Charlie's stomach and she bent over, bracing her hands on the ground. In the three weeks since they'd fled Monroe, Rachel hadn't explained anything. Fair enough – Monroe wouldn't let her go, but why not? 

Rachel wouldn't say. She hinted and skirted around and changed the subject, until Charlie felt like screaming. Nothing solid, nothing she could latch on and start rebuilding her idea of family around. Right now, her mind was as scattered as those old postcards she'd left at Drexel's.

Hating Monroe was easy, Charlie had a million reasons to hate him. Only...she wasn't sure she could condemn him any more. If it hadn't been her family, if she found out Monroe was holding some other girl's mom because she knew how to turn on the power and wouldn't?

She'd have felt sorry for her, but...

The thought hovered on the tip of Charlie's brain. She shoved it back down, refusing to look at it, until it was like she'd never had it. 

Almost.


End file.
